There is a scene from the movie "The Program" that captures what college sports is truly all about these days.

At an academic hearing to get his backup quarterback re-instated after his starter is suspended, head coach Sam Winters, played by James Caan, faces off with a Regent Chairman and speaks the cold, hard truth about college sports.

Chairman: "This is not a football vocational school. It's an institute for higher learning."

Coach Winters: "Yeah, but when was the last time 80,000 people showed up to watch a kid do a damn chemistry experiment?"

As my syracuse.com colleague Donna Ditota points out in the article linked above:

"Of the 12 scholarship basketball players to enroll as Orange freshmen, only five completed four-year careers at SU (Roberts, Nichols, Watkins, Onuaku and Rautins). Two — McCroskey and Jones — transferred; McCroskey went to Marist and Jones went on a nomadic search for the proper collegiate fit that included South Carolina, Indian Hills Junior College (Iowa) and Claflin University. The rest on that list left SU before their eligibility expired."

Any Syracuse basketball fan can glance at that list and recall the turbulence Syracuse endured in that time frame. It certainly wasn't an ideal time period, but it also represents a cold, hard truth about college sports.

You just don't know.

Syracuse coaches can recruit a kid until the cows come home. They can talk to him, his family, coaches, neighbors, and teammates to get a read on how that kid will handle college.

Every kid that gets recruited to come to Syracuse is talented enough to play basketball at the Division I level. Talent is easy to read and Jim Boeheim and his coaching staff of Mike Hopkins, Gerry McNamara, and Adrian Autry have a strong eye for it.

What you can't project is how that kid will handle college and everything that comes with it. How will that kid handle the "student" part of "student-athlete?" How will that 18-year old kid handle the spotlight they are thrust in as the most recognized people on campus and instant celebrities in a town obsessed with it's winning basketball program?

I think that is an important distinction to make. For the most part, this is not a town or a fan base that is obsessed with college basketball. It is obsessed with the program that wins. But that's a different topic for a different day.

The point is Barack Obama could stroll through Armory Square side-by-side with Tyler Ennis and it is a safe bet that Ennis would garner more attention.

Which brings me to a question I want to ask you.

Watch Boeheim's press conference above and ask yourself this:
How much do you truly care what he is talking about?

How much does it REALLY bother you that Syracuse had a 45% graduation rate in the 2003-04 to 2006-07 time frame?

Does it bother you more that Daryl Watkins didn't go to class or that he couldn't stay out of foul trouble?

Does the 45% graduation rate or Arinze Onuaku's free throw percentage (which was about the same) make you more upset?

College sports fans like to pretend that academics matter. We like to put on a front that we do care about the "student-athlete."

But did you wait in line for Duke tickets months ahead of time with Trevor Cooney's GPA on your mind?

If you ran into C.J. Fair today and were granted five minutes of his time, would his class schedule come up once? Maybe it would to see how much it gets in the way of basketball practice.

Syracuse is a unique fan base as it mixes a healthy percentage of Central New York residents, who view Syracuse University football and basketball the same way a fan in a pro sports city would view their favorite NFL and NBA team, with current SU students and alums.

There is certainly a strong contingent of Syracuse alumni spread across the globe that take pride in their degree from Syracuse University and what it represents.

But nothing brings an alumni base together...like sports. School pride tends to show more during Final Four runs, not when 4.0 GPA's are awarded.

Truth: Jim Boeheim's job is to win basketball games first and worry about academics later and that's just the way you want it to be.

While there are a number of programs in college athletics that have certainly managed to build both strong academic and athletic reputations, that list tends to be smaller than the fan bases that just want to win and see everything else come second.

Boeheim does care about academics and the futures of his players. You can clearly see that if you watch the video and read his comments.

But he also took the opportunity last night to basically throw up his hands and say, "what do you want me to do about it? They are going to do what they want to do."

Especially in an era where Michael Carter-Williams can go from starting point guard for Syracuse to starting point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers in one year's time.

Should that be held against Boeheim that he helped Carter-Williams land a successful career? Honestly, who cares if MCW ever graduates with a degree from Syracuse University? Syracuse University basketball gave him the platform to achieve a basketball career. Sure, it is a little different than how the Newhouse School of Communications gives future journalists a platform for a career, but the same objective was reached.

Josh Wright, Louis McCroskey, and Eric Devendorf all chose to leave Syracuse University early for their own personal reasons.

Wright made some bad life choices. McCroskey wanted to play somewhere else. Devendorf overestimated his pro basketball value and left a year too early.

It happens. That is what college is truly all about. To learn about yourself and what you want to do in this big, bad world. Not a piece of paper.

Not everyone succeeds at it. But let's blame Boeheim for his bad graduation rate because Wright, McCroskey, and Devendorf went down a different path?

As Boeheim said at his presser, "if someone can tell me how we're supposed to graduate a guy who leaves, I would love for them to come and tell me that. Explain how we can do that?"

I'm all ears myself on that.

"The Program" came out in 1993, but that quote by James Caan holds more water today than ever.

Until we see the day 35,000 people pack the Carrier Dome to watch a chemistry experiment, let's stop with the fake outrage when student-athletes forget about the "student" part.